Chapter 19 #2
It was too late. Saint had already held the receiver up to his ear. His eyes widened before they rolled back, his whole body going stiff before he hit the floor. The receiver dangled from the desk, swaying slowly.
“Saint!” Teddy yelled, breaking the shock.
They ran over to him and Teddy put shaky fingers to his pulse. Wren looked worriedly at him for an answer.
“Pulse is strong. I think he’s just knocked out,” Teddy said with relief. “It must have been a nuisance curse.”
“Kellan thinks this is some sick joke,” Wren said, taking his hoodie off and balling it up under Saint’s head. “He’s toying with us.”
Teddy curled his fingers into the back of Wren’s hair and guided his forehead to his. “He doesn’t know who he’s messing with, right?”
Wren gave him a small smile. “Right.”
“We can figure a way out.”
“There has to be an endgame here that we’re not seeing. He wouldn’t just trap us here for no reason. Especially after spending so much time on you all these years. He wouldn’t throw you in a warehouse to rot.”
“Then we have a deadline to get out of here before he comes to get us.”
Wren nodded.
Teddy gave him a confident smile. “Always worked best under pressure.”
Wren pressed a desperate kiss to his mouth.
When they broke apart they kept their heads close. “So, know anything about breaking bond curses?” Teddy asked.
“Other than with arson? Not exactly.”
“Me neither. No one has any idea what Eerie does. It’s never been documented with Nexus and he refuses to say. People just joke that he scares the curses away.”
Wren snorted. “Well I’ll never get mad at someone making Nexus sweat a little for some answers, but that doesn’t exactly help us out with ideas.”
“There has to be something. This area is huge. Maybe there’s a weak point we can stress.”
They got to their feet and began searching again, this time much more cautious of anything they touched. If it seemed like an obvious way out, it had probably been planted there, just like that phone.
As much as Wren hated him, Kellan was too meticulous to leave much to chance and he wasn’t stupid.
A flutter of wings caught Wren’s attention, Blu’s talons in his shoulder sending his gaze straight up.
A single, lonely pigeon had flown through a crack in the corrugated metal roof, landing on one of the beams to settle.
“Teddy,” Wren said softly, keeping his gaze turned up.
Teddy followed his line of sight and froze. “How? Did it just fly in?”
Wren nodded.
“So the roof isn’t cursed?”
Wren frowned, not knowing if that were possible. His eyes went to the dirty skylights that had been dotted around the roof to let some natural light in once upon a time.
“How’s your aim?” Wren asked, pointing.
“Better than yours.”
Wren’s mouth dropped open and he turned and punched Teddy in the arm.
“Ow. That’s counterproductive!”
Wren humphed. “If sports were more interesting then I’d be better than you at throwing.”
Teddy leaned in and kissed the tip of his nose. “Still so competitive, Little Bird.”
He skirted around him and picked up a box of small metal components from one of the desks, then made his way up to the catwalk while Wren moved himself and the still unconscious Saint out of the way.
From there Teddy launched a chunk of metal up toward one of the dirty skylights. Instead of cracking or shattering, it bounced back with force, accelerating and partially embedding itself in the concrete floor.
Definitely cursed.
“Closer now,” Wren called.
Teddy did as instructed, aiming and hitting a little farther along toward where they’d seen the pigeon fly in.
It still ricocheted, but there was noticeably less force.
“It’s definitely weaker over there,” Wren said.
“Do you think it’s the machine?” Teddy asked.
Wren paused. “What?”
“The gap is over the machine. Do you think it’s pulling the power out of the curse?” Teddy asked.
“Can something do that?”
“I have no idea.”
But it made sense as a theory.
“Throw again,” Wren said. “Go around the other side.”
They spent a little longer throwing objects before Wren was satisfied enough for Teddy to return to his side. It seemed like they had an opening, and only one option to get a message out of here to Eerie.
Blu.
“We don’t have to,” Teddy said. “We can think of something else. Maybe we can find enough stuff to build up to there.”
Wren looked at his brave companion, who tilted his tiny head at him. His heart hurt, but he smiled. “He’s got this.”
“Got this. Got this,” Blu repeated.
“When they tell tales of this in the future, he’ll be the only one they remember. The true hero,” Teddy said.
“Hero,” Blu repeated, and Wren butted their heads together.
“What message are we sending?” Wren asked. “We have to keep it short.”
He watched Teddy think before something in his eyes lit up. “Gemini. And the address.”
Wren frowned. “He’ll know what Gemini means?”
“It’s the special word Eerie and Saint have used since they were kids. It’s code for them. Only they know what it means, so Eerie will know it’s serious.”
“How do you know it then?”
“Only they know it with the exception of me,” he amended.
Wren shook his head, smiling a little.
“What?”
“You can get anyone to tell you anything, can’t you?”
Teddy flushed a bashful pink.
They relayed the message to Blu a few times, making sure he had it down before letting him fly away, a knot tied in the pit of Wren's stomach. Wren was worried about Blu’s secret being revealed to someone outside of the two of them, but times were desperate.
“We should look and see if there’s anywhere to hide or hole up, just in case Eerie doesn’t make it in time,” Teddy said, and Wren nodded.
Teddy bent down and together they got Saint hiked up on Teddy’s back. They began searching around before Wren stopped in his tracks.
The snake.
He looked over his shoulder at the machine, imposing and still drawing Wren’s magic to it, despite the distance.
Wren doubled back.
“Wren? What are you doing?” Teddy called, Saint still draped over his back like a backpack.
“There’s an animal in there. I’m not leaving them behind.”
“What if this is what he wants you to do? What if it’s another part of the trap?”
Wren gave a sad half smile. “Then he knows me well.”
“Wren—”
“I can’t, Teddy.” Wren stopped in front of the machine. He could feel it humming in his veins. “I came here to save all of them, and I failed. I have to save one if I can. Please.”
Teddy swallowed, hard. Wren could see his vulnerable neck bob with the motion as he came to terms with Wren’s choice. He set Saint gently against a wall before joining him and grabbing his hand.
“Then I’m going with you.”
Wren shook his head. “You need to get Saint out if this goes wrong.”
“I’m not leaving you to step inside that thing alone.”
“If one of us gets out, it has to be you, Teddy. Whatever Kellan’s obsessed with, it involves you, not me. All he wants is me out of the way. He always has. You can’t give him what he wants.”
“Just like you can’t leave that snake, I can’t leave you. It goes against every fiber of my being. You carry my heart and my soul, Little Bird. Without you I’m just a body, and what use is a body with no heart or soul?”
Wren looked up at him with teary eyes then stood on his tiptoes to pull him into another kiss. He savored it, committing every moment to memory before placing small hands on his chest and pushing hard.
Teddy stumbled back, caught off guard, and Wren dove into the machine.
Just as he suspected, the door closed behind him, trapping him inside.
“WREN!” Teddy bashed on the glass helplessly.
He looked distraught, and Wren hated that he was responsible for it.
Wren didn’t have a death wish. He wasn’t sacrificing himself for no reason. He simply knew that if he had left that helpless creature in there alone, he wouldn’t have been able to live with himself after. It would have haunted him forever.
He had to try.
Fishing the snake out wouldn’t have worked. As soon as anything crossed that threshold the door had closed too fast to act just like he’d known it would.
He had to figure it out from the inside.
He had never given up easily.
Wren laid a hand on the glass. “It’s okay.”
Teddy covered the area from the other side, tears starting to well and fall. “How can you say that?”
“You need to get you, Saint, and Blu out. I’ll meet you.”
“I’M NOT LEAVING WITHOUT YOU!” Teddy shouted, his voice echoing around the space. “I can’t,” Teddy finished, much quieter, sounding devastated. “Don’t ask me again.”
Wren nodded, feeling acceptance pass between them despite the glass. This was who they were. This was why they had fallen so in love.
Wren bent down and coaxed the snake into his hand. The darling was terrified, hissing and tense, but Wren managed to get it to settle. He could feel Teddy watching him, pride and love mixed with sadness in his expression when he glanced up.
Teddy then stepped back and began examining the machine, his tear-streaked face filled with grim determination.
Wren tried to stand up with the snake wrapped around his arm, but he swayed.
“Wren? Are you okay?” Teddy asked quickly.
Wren put a hand to the glass to steady himself and nodded.
The weight of the magic was concentrated in here, almost as if it were magnified. Wren could feel his strength leaving him by the second, sweat beading on his neck and under his arms. “Maybe we should speed this up though?”
Teddy glanced around more fervently than before.
He tried one thing after another. Seams. Searching for hidden switches. The broken computers. They yielded nothing. From the inside, Wren did the same, searching for anything that could hint at how to open the machine.
“It’s got to be those conduits,” Teddy said.
“The ones we were expressly told not to touch?” Wren asked, voice growing weaker.
“When did you start listening to orders?”
Wren laughed faintly, not having the energy for anything else, and Teddy grew more anxious.
“I’ll dismantle the whole fucking thing if I have to. Screw it.”